Nursing

Do you value your staff? Then prove it!

Nurse Leader Weekly, May 1, 2006

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Golden Bethune, Director of Nursing at Centra Health in Lynchburg, VA, has a deep commitment to retaining staff and believes employee recognition and reward play a central role in creating an engaging workplace. Centra Health employs the following formal and informal recognition and rewards for employees.

Formal recognition and rewards

  • Create a formal recognition committee to nominate and submit applications to recognize staff. Committee membership consists of nurses who represent all service lines and nursing units. Staff are chosen for unit and hospital-wide recognition.

  • Provide a recognition breakfast, lunch, and dinner for nursing assistants and licensed practical nurses who work to advance their skills to higher certification or license levels.

  • Award a quarterly unit "Spirit Award," and make each recipient eligible for an annual "Spirit" prize. Awardees names are placed into a drawing for a vacation trip, conference attendance fees, or some other meaningful prize.

  • Hand out "Staff Awards" at each staff meeting. Throughout the month, have staff e-mail the manager about something great a co-worker has done. At the end of the staff meeting, recognize staff members and give a small gift and a certificate of appreciation.

Informal recognition and rewards

  • Hand out movie tickets for two when someone needs encouragement, and include a note that says "Look at the big picture and know you are appreciated."

  • Display banners that list the years of service for all staff. Provide a tally to demonstrate the total years of service on a unit.

  • Begin each staff meeting with recognition of staff members mentioned on patient satisfaction surveys or thank you cards from patients.

  • Create a "pass along award." It may be some sort of trophy or stuffed animal that has meaning to the group. For example, you might establish the "Stuffed Monkey" Award to recognize quality performance with a theme of "No Monkey Business Here." Establish a rule that the recipient must pass the award along to another deserving person within two weeks of receiving it.

  • Recognize good performers by addressing the problems of poor performers. Letting others get away with sub-par behavior is a slap in the face to the majority of those who carry their share of the load-and more.

  • Buy fruit or candy, and place them around the unit with thank you notes.

Editor's Note: This excerpt was adapted from the book A Practical Guide to Recruitment and Retention: Skills for Nurse Managers by Shelley Cohen, RN, BS, CEN, and Dennis Sherrod, EdD, RN. For more information, or to order your copy of the book, visit hcmarketplace.com.



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